alanjjohnstone
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Human rights and the excuse of the pandemic to suppress it
Another large show of strength by protesters.
Will this be the flash-point?
Don’t the ruling class hold the purse strings to what is studied? As such, don’t they ultimately determine the outcomes of scientific research?
A parallel would be that reforms must be compatible with capitalism or the reforms simply don’t transpire. If science or technology is not in line with the capitalist wishes, they won’t get funding and won’t become a reality.
It is a dichotomy that exists between those who seek to study “pure abstract science” and the need for it to have applications for the capitalists to benefit.
Scientists are as BD suggests, servants of the ruling class.
Of course, as that wonderful 70s tv series ‘Connections’ with James Burke showed, there is rarely a straight line from one discovery to another
In Texas a propaganda war has broken out over the cause of its electrical power collapses.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/20/in-extreme-texas-cold-green-new-deal-turns-into-hot-potato
“This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott told Fox News.
“The Green New Deal has nothing to do with our problems in Texas,” said Daniel Cohan, associate professor of engineering at Rice University. “…Natural gas systems failed to provide those plants with a reliable supply of fuel.”
The start of the crackdown or a miscalculation?
It seems from the PR spin that “America First” has been replaced by “America is Back”…back to 2016 where Obama left off.
South Carolina became the latest US state to ban most abortions.
The “South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act” is similar to abortion restriction laws that have passed in a dozen states including neighbouring Georgia, as well as Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Ohio. In 2019, Missouri approved a ban on abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy and Alabama outright outlawed all abortions.
South Carolina’s bill requires doctors to perform ultrasounds to check for a heartbeat in the fetus. If one is detected, the abortion can only be performed if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest or the mother’s life is in danger.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/18/south-carolina-bans-most-abortions-planned-parenthood-sues
Yet again Israel’s nuclear weapons are ignored.
Israel is carrying out a major expansion of its Dimona nuclear facility in the Negev desert, where it makes the fissile material for its nuclear arsenal.
The Federation of American Scientists estimates that Israel has about 90 warheads, made from plutonium produced in the Dimona heavy water reactor.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/18/israel-nuclear-facility-dimona-weapons
The U.S. State Department announced the proposed sale of nearly $200 million worth of shipborne surface-to-air missiles to Egypt’s authoritarian regime.
The $197 million sale of up to 168 Raytheon Rolling Airframe missiles “will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a major non-NATO ally country that continues to be an important strategic partner in the Middle East.”
And this at a time where free speech in universities is supposedly going to have more protection.
https://www.bbc.com/news/education-55995979
Now we know how selective it will be applied
Australia woke up on Thursday to find the Facebook pages of all local and global news sites – as well as some key government sites – had been blocked.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56099523
Google to pay Rupert Murdoch for using news sourced from his media empire.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56101859
I’m less concerned about Facebook since i’m not on it but is Google the first step that everything on search engines will be behind pay-wall because they now have to pay for content?
Vitamin D toxicity is usually caused by large doses of vitamin D supplements — not by diet or sun exposure. That’s because your body regulates the amount of vitamin D produced by sun exposure, and even fortified foods don’t contain large amounts of vitamin D.
But re-reading my post it is rather naive of me to think hot countries have lower covid cases. Plenty of sunny states in the USA have high numbers.
Is vitamin D the panacea this article claims? Not so much anti-vaxxer but reflecting Wez’s concern on the bias of science.
Why politicians and doctors keep ignoring the medical research on Vitamin D and Covid
Off the top of my head it may explain why many poor nations in the tropics and semi-tropics have not recorded the same high number of covid cases.
More on Apartheid Israel
As a Rabbi Raised in South Africa, I Can’t Ignore Israel Is an Apartheid State
